We all know hindsight is 20/20. It’s always been a mystery post WWII why intelligent people could not grasp the threat that NAZI’s posed to the world. Boyd’s book does not give a definitive answer to the question but lays out massive amounts of first person books, letters, diaries and speeches reported by people, primarily British and American, who traveled in Germany beginning just after WWI through the beginning of WWII. To modern eyes, the failure of many of these correspondents to recognise the dangers of Nazism is galling. The complacency and the wilful blindness to sinister truths are plain to see, though it became impossible to maintain as the Nazis started openly persecuting the Jews and annexing surrounding territories. For who could sensibly fail to understand the implications of cities festooned in massive Nazi banners flapping above state-sanctioned, anti-Semitic graffiti – the writing, literally, on the walls? Knowing that anti-Semitism and animosity towards communism were widespread sentiments in the 1930s, the Nazis happily made use of the idea that there was a common enemy. As part of this effort, from the mid-1930s onwards, guided tours of Dachau became a kind of tourist attraction – and it worked. ‘Adjutant says most prisoners Communist,’ Victor Cazalet MP wrote in his diary. ‘If that is the case, then they can stay there for all I care.’ Two other visitors praised the Nazis for giving these ‘dregs of humanity’ a new chance. When James Grover MacDonald, American High Commissioner for Refugees coming from Germany, questioned the necessity of Dachau, his guide told him “Germany was still in the throes of a revolution, and that whereas in most revolutions political prisoners were shot, at Dachau ‘we try to reform them’.” What none of them could have known was that the prisoners they saw on their guided tours were usually guards in disguise.

Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd | Waterstones Travellers in the Third Reich by Julia Boyd | Waterstones

Reicho didybė aprašyta taip stipriai ir taip įtaigiai, visokie festivaliai ir masiniai renginiai, kad net norisi laiko masina nusikelti. Kažkaip susišaukia su dabartine turizmo bangą į Šaiurės Korėją. Tiek daug mums žinomų vardų ir švenčių kurios minimos, pvz oktober fest arba Thomas Cook kuris šlovino ir skatino turizmą į Vokietiją Julia Boyd has written what has to be one of the most fascinating books of the using new material for private collections and archives around the world. She also asks the poignant question of without the benefit of hindsight, how do you interpret what’s right in front of your eyes? Clearly not an easy question to answer, but one Julia Boyd sets out to do with Travellers in the Third Reich. Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown The events that took place in Germany between 1919 and 1945 were dramatic and terrible but there were also moments of confusion, of doubt – of hope. How easy was it to know what was actually going on, to grasp the essence of National Socialism, to remain untouched by the propaganda or predict the Holocaust?Did anything change in the attitudes of the travelers after their experience? It doesn’t appear so in most cases. People saw what they wanted to see and ignored the things that might have troubled them. It was common early in the 30s for NAZI’s to give tours of work camps such as Dachau. Most travelers were untroubled. Of course they were getting a much sanitized tour in which guards were dressed as prisoners and were not experiencing abuse. For decades after the Nazis came to power, most outside Germany had the attitude that it was a one-off. “It can’t happen here” was said so much that Sinclair Lewis chose it as the title of his 1935 novel about the rise of a US dictator. There were even Americans who saluted and met Hitler! In a restaurant, a parade, a ceremony and thought he was just superb! Kind, soft-spoken, intelligent, and he likes children!

Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the Eyes of Travellers in the Third Reich: The Rise of Fascism Through the

I found this a fascinating read especially as a follow on to the excellent Hitler: Ascent: 1889-1939 which I read recently and which showed how the German people were duped by Hitler and ultimately were complicit in what happened once he had supreme power. This brought a different perspective to that as it was based on writings of overseas visitors to the Third Reich. It was striking what a popular destination it was for both British and Americans despite the persecution of the Jews that had started and was clearly going on. It seems that the English upper classes saw Nazi Germany as the lesser of two evils compared to the communist threat from Russia - and thank goodness for Wallis Simpson as Edward VIII would have been a disastrous king for the period that his brother ended up reigning. The author aptly finishes her book with the following words: Perhaps the most chilling fact to emerge from these travellers’ tales is that so many perfectly decent people could return home from Hitler’s Germany singing its praises. Nazi evil permeated every aspect of German society yet, when blended with the seductive pleasures still available to the foreign visitor, the hideous reality was too often and for too long ignored. More than eight decades after Hitler became chancellor we are still haunted by the Nazis. It is right that we should be. Most of the travelers Boyd describes generally fall into three categories: those who “had made up their minds as to which camp they belonged”, those who were naively or wilfully ignorant “because Germany’s cultural heritage was simply too precious to renounce for politics, however unpleasant those politics might be”, and those who were just plain confused and baffled by what they experienced and observed. I also liked that she didn't shy away from being judgmental when it was appropriate as in her comment, “The historian Sir Arthur Bryant was another notable foreigner whose benign view of the Nazis lasted longer than was decent.” And btw, in more than one instance the 'inmates' of the camps who spoke to foreign visitors were not inmates, but actors and German soldiers pretending to be inmates.) Added to this was the fact that many in Europe and American disliked the French more than the Germans. The French were seen as arrogant, chaotic, and ungrateful for the aid they had been given in the First World War, and were thought to have been the driving force behind the harsh peace terms that devastated Germany. For many people it seemed obvious that the future of Europe lay with the alliance of the Germanic peoples in Britain and Germany, an alliance which would dominate the rest of the word politically, economically, and militarily. British Admiral Sir Barry Domvile (whose support for Hitler’s regime was so enthusiastic the British government interned him at the start of the war), was a true believer in this kind of alliance, and a visit to Germany “confirmed a deep belief, shared by so many men who had fought in the Great War, that without a strong alliance between England and Germany there could be no world peace.” (p. 181)Galėčiau dar rašyti ir rašyti, bet tiesiog labai rekomenduoju. Stilius tikrai nesudėtingas, knyga įtraukia labiau nei koks trileris ir labai įdomiai nuspalvina tokią didingą ir paslaptingą trečiojo reicho Vokietiją. The book ends with chilling accounts of life in Germany during the war, as shortages gave way to terror and constant bombing raids. The Americans bombed during the day and the British at night, and slowly Germany industry was destroyed, and it cities – some of which were among the great cultural jewels of civilization – were reduced to piles of rubble. By the end of the war anything, even communism, would have been better than freezing and starving in the cellars of bombed-out cities. And finally, there were some who thought that what happened in Germany was none of anyone else’s business. There are echoes of this today when people ask what right the United States has to insert itself in the domestic affairs of other countries. Every time the United States points out glaring human rights violations in China or other places the response is sure to be that the West’s history is not exactly spotless. In the 1930s “What Germany could not comprehend…was why Great Britain insisted on acting as the moral godmother to the rest of the world. And why did the British press and Parliament concentrate on Germany’s supposed iniquities, and ignore the shortcomings of other countries such as Russia.” (p. 329) She includes professionals such as diplomats and journalists, famous writers, students and holiday takers and everything in between. Everyone thought Germany was beautiful with its landscapes, music culture and its universities. Very few included significant negative comments. NAZI’s were very good with PR, showing how the country had improved since the war and the draconian policies of the Versailles Treaty. And were they ever good at putting on a show! All that hid the very nasty core of their racism that eventually led to the halocaust. They were master propagandists. Hitler understood completely the power of theatre: the weekly rallies, the speeches, the marching songs, the torchlight processions and, importantly I think, the semi-erotic power of all those alpha males in beautifully designed uniforms. Let us not be naïve about any of this.